'Scotland has much to be proud of in the way that the pandemic has been managed. I have no doubt that the death toll would have been greater without the unwavering support and close working relationship between the government and the clinical community.' Dr Dr Stephen Cole, President of the Scottish Intensive Care Society Contributor reminders and comments talkingupreminders@gmail.com

Times writers fail to check just what First Minister said

Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she refused to follow England out of lockdown because Scotland was “behind the curve” has been called into question by official statistics.

The First Minister has not mentioned the curve recently but did on the 7th May:

And we are not yet confident that the all-important R number is comfortably below 1 – and I’ve explained and set out before why it is so important to get it and keep it comfortably below 1. Indeed, we think it could still be hovering around 1 just now – which means that any significant easing up of restrictions at this stage would be very very risky indeed. Also, we think the R number may still be a bit higher here than it is in other parts of the UK – perhaps reflecting the fact that our first cases came later than England’s and so we may be at a different – and slightly later – stage of the infection curve.

So, the First Minister is clearly saying that it is because of the R number not the curve, that Scotland is not following England out of lock-down. She mentions the curve merely as a possible explanatory factor in the R number being where it is.

Neither Mark McLaughlin nor Kieran Andrews have spotted the real mistake, one that matters to pedants like moi. If our first cases came later then we’d be at an earlier, not later, stage of the infection curve, behind the curve..

4 thoughts on “Times writers fail to check just what First Minister said”

Alas, Scotland has bin-rakers and knee creepers when we need actual journalists.

A big laugh-out loud moments with Mark Smith in the Herold this morning, when he claimed “trust me, I’m a journalist—a neutral, unbiased BBC journalist” in defence of the Hon Sarah—who needs no such support, she is aware of EVERYTHING she says/does with regard to Sturgeon/Scotland/SNP.

But Scotland, a country where half of the population are in favour of independence, has zero “journalists”, not one, who cover the news from that perspective. Perhaps Wee Markie could write a piece on THAT, rather than his endless whining about knowing someone anonymous, who might know someone else anonymous (sounds like a Repressing Scotland news item), who got harassed by that BAD SNP, just because they are Brit Nat propagandists working in a news room.

'Scotland has much to be proud of in the way that the pandemic has been managed. I have no doubt that the death toll would have been greater without the unwavering support and close working relationship between the government and the clinical community.' Dr Dr Stephen Cole, President of the Scottish Intensive Care Society Contributor reminders and comments talkingupreminders@gmail.com

'Scotland has much to be proud of in the way that the pandemic has been managed. I have no doubt that the death toll would have been greater without the unwavering support and close working relationship between the government and the clinical community.' Dr Dr Stephen Cole, President of the Scottish Intensive Care Society Contributor reminders and comments talkingupreminders@gmail.com

'Scotland has much to be proud of in the way that the pandemic has been managed. I have no doubt that the death toll would have been greater without the unwavering support and close working relationship between the government and the clinical community.' Dr Dr Stephen Cole, President of the Scottish Intensive Care Society Contributor reminders and comments talkingupreminders@gmail.com

'Scotland has much to be proud of in the way that the pandemic has been managed. I have no doubt that the death toll would have been greater without the unwavering support and close working relationship between the government and the clinical community.' Dr Dr Stephen Cole, President of the Scottish Intensive Care Society Contributor reminders and comments talkingupreminders@gmail.com